The Education Secretary, Justine Greening, has announced a consultation (external link) which covered a range of proposals for creating an all-inclusive school system for the 21st century. The most publicised and controversial of these relate to grammar schools:
- Allowing existing grammar schools to expand (dedicated funding of up to £50 million a year would be made available)
- Permitting the establishment of new selective schools
- Allowing existing non-selective schools to become selective
- Require all selective schools to engage in outreach activities and prioritise the admission of pupils from lower income houses
In order to take advantage of these proposed freedoms, schools would have to meet specified conditions: for example, taking a proportion of pupils from lower income households, supporting a local non-selective or primary school, or ensuring that there are opportunities to join the selective school at different points in a pupil’s education.
There are also proposals to require universities and independent schools to provide support to state-funded schools, such as through sponsoring or setting up an academy.
The final section of the consultation relates to faith schools. The government is proposing to remove the restriction that new faith schools can admit a maximum of 50% of pupils on the basis of faith when oversubscribed. A variety of alternative proposals are posited, including placing an independent person who is of “different” or “no faith” on the governing board of new faith free schools.
The consultation is open until 12 December.